If a picture
is worth a thousand words, what’s a camera loaded with pictures
worth?

For Tabeier
Shine of White Plaines, N.Y., the camera held the memories of a once-in-a-lifetime
motorcycle trip through the West.

And then they
were gone.

Shine
had flown from New York to connect with friends in Vancouver, B.C.,
to begin the motorcycle tour. The first day of the adventure, May 15,
took them to Spokane; the second a trip to Boise along U.S. 95 and Idaho
55.

About
halfway between Grangeville and Riggins, Shine’s memories disappeared
– the new digital camera he purchased to document the trip fell
without notice from the motorcycle and came to rest on the highway.

That’s
where an ITD striping crew discovered the camera, still in its protective
case.

“…one
of our crew members spotted what they thought might have been a camera
on the shoulder of the road,” said Jack Turner, a Transportation
Technician in District 2. “Not being able to stop at the time,
I went back after we had finished painting that section of road (which
was a section of highway that had a new overlay on it) and picked up
a digital camera in its case.”

Turner tracked
down one of riders in the motorcycle excursion who in turn helped him
locate the camera’s owner in New York.

“I could
tell by the pictures that a group of motorcyclists was on a trip (pretty
interesting I may say) and obviously someone in the group must have
lost this camera,” Turner wrote in an e-mail to a member of the
group. “I would very much like to get it back to the rightful
owner. If you know who owns this camera, I would like to hear from them.”

“In
this day and age, I cannot believe that someone went through all of
this trouble to get the camera back to me,” a surprised and appreciative
Shine wrote to District 2 Engineer Jim Carpenter, thanking Turner for
the effort.

“I only
bought this camera 10 days before I left for my trip, specifically for
this trip, and I am so incredibly humbled and amazed that Mr. Turner
was so kind enough to do this.

“It would
mean a lot to our group (affectionately named the Epic Crew) for ITD
to recognize his honesty so the world can know that among the random
acts of tragedy that wear us down and cause us to lose hope, there still
exists people like Jack Turner who embody the pure characteristics of
model citizens, honest and kind…”

A
grateful Shine now has more than just fond memories of her 2007 trip
through Idaho. She also has a visual record of the trip, thanks to the
persistence of Turner and the striping crew.